Collections of the Russian museum

Painting of the second half of the XIX – early XXI centuries

Among the paintings handed over to the Russian Museum at the time of its foundation, a significant portion was comprised of works by leading artists of the second half of the XIX century. (I.K. Aivazovsky, V.M. Vasnetsov, K.E. Makovsky, I.E. Repin, V.D.Polenov, V.I.Surikov). Despite the fact that the selection of paintings for the museum in the first two decades of its existence was somewhat limited by the conservative tastes of the Council of the Academy of Arts, the range of paintings presented in the collection was constantly expanding. This can largely be credited to museum officials, such as Albert and Alexander Benois, I.E.Grabar, P.I.Neradovsky and others.

Among the paintings handed over to the Russian Museum at the time of its foundation, a significant portion was comprised of works by leading artists of the second half of the XIX century. (I.K. Aivazovsky, V.M. Vasnetsov, K.E. Makovsky, I.E. Repin, V.D.Polenov, V.I.Surikov). Despite the fact that the selection of paintings for the museum in the first two decades of its existence was somewhat limited by the conservative tastes of the Council of the Academy of Arts, the range of paintings presented in the collection was constantly expanding. This can largely be credited to museum officials, such as Albert and Alexander Benois, I.E.Grabar, P.I.Neradovsky and others.

Important steps were taken to form the collection of works by modern artists. Individual paintings and groups of works came from exhibitions of I.I. Levitan (1901), V.V. Vereschagin (1905), Y.F.Tsionglinsky (in 1914) , the Association of Itinerant Art Exhibitions (S.Y. Zhukovsky, N.A. Kasatkin, I.I. Levitan, V.E. Makovsky), New Society of Artists (B.M. Kustodiev, N.M. Fokin), authors (A.Y. Golovin, V.A. Serov, M.V. Nesterov), and from private collectors ("The meal" by V.G. Perov, "Portrait of O.K. Orlova" by V.A. Serov and others).

A notable contribution to the collection was made in 1918, when M.A. Vrubel’s sketches and K.A. Somov’s paintings were given to the museum from V.N. Argutinsky-Dolgoruky’s vast collection. Soon after that, the museum received N.I. and E.M. Tereschenko’s collection, consisting mainly of works by artists of the late XIX - early XX century (including the "Knight" and "Six-winged seraphim" M.A. Vrubel), A.A. Korovin’s collection including paintings by V.A. Serov, F.A. Malyavin, M.V. Nesterov, K.A. Korovin, as well as representatives of the artistic associations "World of Art", "Blue Rose", and "Jack of Diamonds".

The collection of paintings of the second half of the XIX – early XX century continued to grow in the 1930s. At that time, among other works, the “Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council” by I.E. Repin was handed over from the Museum of Revolution. From the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum received paintings by masters under-represented in the latter’s ("Guitarist-bachelor" and "Portrait of Ivan Turgenev" by V.G. Perov, "Self Portrait" by N.V. Nevrev, “Female student” by N.A .Yaroshenko, "Flying demon" by M.A. Vrubel and "Women" by F.A. Malyavin).

Over the past twenty years, the museum has received about two hundred works of art of the second half of XIX - early XX century. Most of these works were donated in 1998 by brothers I.A. and Y.A. Rzhevsky. An extensive collection of paintings by Russian artists (including paintings by I.K. Aivazovsky, I.I. Shishkin, N.N. Dubovskоy, B.N. Kustodiev, K.Y. Kryzhitsky and many other masters) is now part of the permanent exhibition of the museum is the building of the Marble Palace. One should also mention several sketches and paintings by Russian artists of the late XIX - XX century (S.Y. Zhukovsky, E.I. Stolitsa, A.B. Lahovskоy and others), donated in 2009 by N.P. Ivashkevich. A notable acquisition of recent years was the painting by I.I. Repin "Portrait of a soldier", formerly owned by a North American company.

In 1926, in addition to the Art Department of the Russian Museum, the Department of Contemporary Art was created. Its collections started to grow with works of avant-garde art movements and art groups of the first quarter of the XX century. These included works by N.S. Goncharova, V.V. Kandinsky, P.P. Konchalovsky, P.V. Kuznetsov, M.F. Larionov, A.V. Lentulov, K.S. Malevich, L.S. Popova, V.E. Tatlin, R.R. Falk, P.N. Filonov, M.Z. Chagall and many others.

By 1927, the exhibition of the Russian Museum comprised examples of numerous latest trends from post-impressionism to non-object art. The Department of Contemporary Art only existed for three years, but in fact, it marked the beginning of the Department of Soviet Art of the Russian Museum (1932-1991), the collections of which have continued to grow (as part of the Department of Painting of the second half of XIX – early XXI centuries). These collections comprise over 6.000 items, covering almost all schools, trends, major types and genres of Russian art of the XX – early XXI centuries.

The Russian Museum has one of the largest collections of works of the early Russian avant-garde and its leading artists. All the main innovative trends of the middle of the second decade of the XX century are represented in the collection: abstract art (V.V. Kandinsky) and its purely Russian branch – “luchism” ("rayonism", M.F. Larionov, N.S. Goncharova), neo-primitivism (M.F. Larionov , N.S. Goncharova, A.V. Shevchenko, K.S. Malevich), cubofuturism (D.D. Burlyuk, K.S. Malevich, I.A. Puni, L.S. Popova, N.A. Udaltsov, A.A. Ekster and others), suprematism (K.S. Malevich, I.A. Puni, O.V. Rozanova, I.V. Klyun), constructivism (V.E. Tatlin, A.M. Rodchenko, A.A. Ekster, L.V. Popova), analytical art (P.N. Filonov). Unique in their entirety are collections of artists who created innovative artistic systems (K.S. Malevich, P.N. Filonov, K.S. Petrov-Vodkin), and of some major artists, including those whose artistic career started in Soviet times (S.V. Gerasimov, P.P. Konchalovsky, P.V. Kuznetsov, B.M. Kustodiev, V.V. Lebedev, A.A. Rylov, A.V. Shevchenko, and N.M. Romadin). Besides that, the collection of the museum comprises works of the representatives of large schools that existed in Soviet times (e.g., Leningrad school of landscape painting of the 1930s - 1950s).

The art of socialist realism, showing high artistic merit, clarity of plot, a tendency for "grand style", is reflected in the paintings by A.A. Deyneka, A.N. Samokhvalov, A.A. Plastov, Yu.I. Pimenov and many other Soviet artists who continued to work during the Great Patriotic War and in the second half of the XX century. The most valuable part of the collection of Soviet art of the Russian Museum includes works by representatives of the "severe style" and relating trends of Soviet art of the 1960s-1970s. The museum collection comprises works by such masters of postwar time as N.I. Andronov, V.V. Vatenin, D.D. Zhilinsky, V.I. Ivanov, G.M. Korzhev, E.E. Moiseenko, P.F. Nikonov, P.P. Ossovsky, V.E. Popkov, V.M. Sidorov, V.F. Stozharov, brothers A.P. and S.P. Tkachev, B.S. Ugarov, P.T. Fomin, and others, representing a wide range of genres – from historical painting to still life.
In the 1970s-1980s, the formerly rejected artistic experience was renovated, which, within the official art trends, gave rise to a number of artists who worked in the area of "idea pictures", related to the metaphorical multidimensional conceptualisation of the world and human life (O.V. Bulgakova, T.G. Nazarenko, N.I. Nesterova , I.V. Pravdin, A.A. Sundukov, and others). During the period of "perestroika" (1985-1991) the collection of the Russian Museum was enriched by a number of artists working within the underground movement. The collection of contemporary art is a very mobile and dynamic part of the collection of the XX – early XXI centuries, while other parts of the collection of paintings continue to grow as well.

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